July 30, 2024

Passage Read: Matthew 13-14
Meditation Verse: 13:19

Thought

When someone hears the Gospel, the Word of God, and doesn't understand it, it is because Satan has snatched away that Word. It's gone! It's not still there percolating, waiting to sprout. It's gone. People want to use Isaiah 55 to convince and comfort themselves, that the Word sown in a heart will eventually do its work and bring that person to Christ. But not everyone who hears the Gospel will eventually believe it. Many who have heard it, multiple times even, died without believing it. We can and should expect an immediate response to the gospel preached: Either people believe it (to one degree or another) or it is stolen from them so that they can't understand and believe. They'll have to hear the gospel again if there's any hope for them to believe.

Application

We sow the gospel again and again into the hearts of people, and for everyone who does not understand it and believe it, that seed is stolen again and again. As many times as we explain the Gospel to someone and they don't believe, what we have sown is stolen from them. The Gospel has power, is the power of God to save a soul who believes it. If I explain the Gospel to someone and they don't believe, I or someone else will have to do it again, if there's any hope for them to be saved. Jesus doesn't give hope here that the seed sown will continue to work on their hearts; He says it's gone. An individual believes at the preaching of the Gospel, or they don't and can't unless they hear/read it again. I shouldn't fool myself. Nor am I obligated to remain by that person's side, repeating the Gospel over and over again until they believe. There are too many other souls who have yet to hear even the first time, to linger long over one who continually fails to understand and believe.